


A kiss on the hand may be quite continental, but diamonds are a troll's best friend

by Kealpos



Category: Homestuck
Genre: F/M, Gen, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Minor Character Death, Non-Graphic Violence, Pale Romance | Moirallegiance, Temporary Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-12
Updated: 2019-05-12
Packaged: 2020-03-01 15:29:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18803134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kealpos/pseuds/Kealpos
Summary: You carve diamonds using diamonds.Karkat Vantas and Feferi Peixes meet on a fourm for a book, and 5 sweeps later, they finally kiss.





	A kiss on the hand may be quite continental, but diamonds are a troll's best friend

Feferi grins at him, rows of small, sharp teeth teetering gently in her mouth. He brings a hand out and gently wipes away a spec of blood settled on her cheek. He’s out of it.

“Oh my Cond, Feferi,” he whispers.

  
“Do you like it?” She asks, still grinning.

  
“Oh my Cond.”

The dead body on the floor doesn’t say a thing. It just lies there, the blood slowly leaking out to stain the sand. They’re on the edge of the sea, and she’s still dripping wet, the purple blood from the corpse slowly coming off of her with the water.

“Feferi. What the hell did you call me for?” He asks distantly, staring up at her, and she grabs his hand.

  
“Wanna run away with me?” Feferi says slyly, and he looks at the dead body for a long time.

“Hell yes.”

-

Your name is unknown. His name is Karkat Vantas, and hers is Feferi Peixes.

-

Karkat and Feferi meet for the first time in a forum for Emialy Winsnp books, and there is an instant connection. Feferi goes by the name xX_GOT)(seagrl_Xx and Karkat by KINGOFROMANCE69. Karkat connects with the need to belong. Feferi says she connects with Emialy’s need for her parent. They add each other on trollian, and it is only then he finds out she’s fuchsia. He freaks out.

-

They are 9 sweeps old when they meet up for the first time, and Karkat realizes she is just as beautiful in real life as she is over video chat. Eridan constantly boasts about how he gets to see her all the time, what with him being an all-important violet and her very special moirail (grumble grumble something green stirs up in Karkat when he hears this) but he’s finally with her. Finally.

She’s tall, and her smile is soft, despite all the teeth. Her hair is wavy and long and heavy, and her skin is cool to the touch. When she sparkles, Alternia begins to sway.

Feferi runs her claws through his hair while they’re watching “IN WHICH A YOUNG TEAL BLOODED ADULT FORMS A RED RELATIONSHIP WITH A RECENTLY MOLTED OLIVEBLOOD, ONLY TO MEET A BLUEBLOOD WHO TRAVELS THROUGH HIS MIND AND THEY LATER FORM A RED RELATIONSHIP, ONLY FOR THE TEALBLOOD TO FIND HE HAS TO FIGHT SEVEN OF THE BLOODBLOOD’S EVIL EXES. ONCE HE PROGRESSES THROUGH SIX OF THESE EXES SHE LEAVES HIM FOR A SUCCESSFUL PURPLEBLOOD, AND HIS FRIENDS TOO LEAVE HIM, ONLY FOR HIM TO GO AND FIGHT THE PURPLEBLOOD WITH THE PHYSICAL MANIFESTATION OF THE POWER OF LOVE, AND GETTING KILLED. HAVING RECEIVED A SECOND LIFE, HE REPLAYS THE SCENE, THIS TIME WITH THE POWER OF SELF-RESPECT AND KILLING THE PURPLEBLOOD, AFTERWARDS HE AND THE BLUEBLOOD REFORM THEIR RELATIONSHIP. FEATURING STYLIZED EDITING, VIDEO GAME MOTIFS, A STRAINED PALE RELATIONSHIP, QUESTIONABLE AGE GAPS, BALLER FIGHT SEQUENCES, VARIOUS SONGS, AND SHOT-FOR-SHOT SCENES OF THE ORIGINAL GRAPHIC NOVEL, WHICH HAS A SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT ENDING.”

She giggles when the fight sequence between Rohxei and Sckott occurs, and her claws trail downwards towards his neck. She gives him a massage. Despite the vulnerability, Karkat has never felt safer.

-

“Your mom sucks.” His statement is short and plain, but she still winces like he bit through the palm of her skin.

  
“She’s not that bad,” Feferi offers, and he shakes his head sharply.

  
“You hate killing lusii. I know you do. And she barely takes care of you. Your mom sucks.”

She frowns at him. He’s braiding her hair. “Let’s run away together,” she says, and he shakes his head again.

  
“Can’t. You’ve got your moirail, I’ve got mine. You’ve got your responsibilities, I’ve got mine.”

  
“Who even cares about Eridan and Gamzee? They don’t do anything for us. We have to bring in all the emotional work. Eridan kills trolls and lusii all the time for me, but it’s scary. And he doesn’t actually care for me. Gamzee doesn’t offer anything to you at all. He’s too drugged up to be romantic.”

“Hey, none-” Karkat hits her horn slightly and she makes a startled whine at the back of her throat. “-of that. You can badmouth Eridan if you want, but Gamzee’s mine. He has a bad parent. You know better.”

  
Feferi sighs. “Yeah. I shouldn’t crack at him about the sopor.”

-

Her eyes are wide. Eridan is grinning proudly, but there’s a hint of disgust and disdain when he looks at Karkat. Karkat whimpers.

She’s kneeled next to him. Karkat’s leg has a medium-sized hole blown into it, a result of Eridan’s disgusting gun. Bright red blood pools around them. Feferi turns and looks at Eridan. He’s still grinning, and his fins are tilted forwards.

“Aren’t you so proud, Feferi? I just wanted to hurt him for getting too close to you, but then I discovered he’s nothing but a mutant. Want to deal the final blow?”

Feferi stares at Karkat. He’s crying. Light red tears. She stands up, pulls out her trident, and he whimpers again. Then, she turns on Eridan, and in the final few moments before she skewers his head, he almost looks as if he’s aroused.

-

"Have you been handling everything okay?” She asks him over the phone, several days after she drops Karkat off at his hive. Eridan was dead. Feferi had dropped Karkat off after a day of her tending to his wounds and holding him, with the expectation that Gamzee would be joining him.

“I’m.. I’m okay,” Karkat says, and she wishes she was there to hold him.

  
“Alright. Gamzee been treating you nice?” He hesitates for a moment too long.

  
“Of course.”

  
“He didn’t come, did he?” The anger leaks out of her voice and he sniffles a little.

“Well, no. I- I called him, and he told me he was coming, but I haven’t seen him. I don’t even think he knew I was missing before that,” he whispers over the phone, and she makes a throaty growl.

  
“I’m going to cull him.”

  
“No! Shoosh.”

Feferi stops, and then looks down at herself. She’s standing in front of her bed, the tenseness of her body reading loud and clear to the fish swimming away from her. She relaxes, and falls back into the gentle sway of the water.

“Say that again, please.”

  
“Shoosh, you absolute disaster. It’s alright,” he tells her, and she makes a little pitysick sigh.

  
“I’m coming to see you ASAP, alright? I’ll help you if he won’t.”

  
“Okay. Don’t tell him about this.”

  
“Of course. Geez, I am glad I don’t have to tell Eridan about these things anymore.”

  
“What’re you going to do about your mom?”

Feferi is silent for a few dreadful seconds, until finally, “I am going have to kill her at some point. I think I need to kill her soon. I think it’s going to be very soon. Eridan’s dead, so there goes a big chunk of my supply. Of course, when she dies, I lose some protection granted from you-know-who, and I’ll have to be prepared for that. I’ll need to train, and hide somewhere she won’t expect it. I’ll need some time.”

  
“Good luck.”

  
“I’ll see you later, mister.”

-

She cleans and redresses his wound. Gamzee not showing is all she can think about, and more than once he has to ask her to be gentler; her anger is getting the best of her.

When it’s all over, Feferi makes him stew with several fish she caught before coming over. She also makes him sushi at his request, and he tears into it like a man who hadn’t eaten in days. With a little prodding, it’s revealed he really hasn’t eaten in days, as he cannot stand yet and his lusus doesn’t have the fine control for cooking for or feeding him. Feferi’s feelings for Gamzee spike a twitch of her claws, but instead she just promises to stay with him and brings him food and water.

On the third evening she slips out and makes Vriska hunt with her. A kid for Vriska and a lusus for Feferi. It takes her an hour to drag it to shore, and another 20 minutes to bring it to her mom, but her mom is sated for another three days. Again, Feferi thinks of killing her.

When she arrives back at Karkat’s hive, she finds him whining mournfully to himself. She watches until he catches her, and whispers her name. She walks over, and gently sits down next to him as he pulls himself up.

“I woke up and you were gone. Are you alright?” He asks.

  
“Of course, Karkat. I just had to feed Mom.”

  
“Okay.”

He looks at her in the face, an intense stare pinning her. She can see the diamonds in his eyes, and she holds her breath because it’s too much to ask for. He blinks, and the expression is gone.

“Karkat-”

  
“Cond, I-I-I I don’t know how I was lucky enough to meet you.” He pauses, and his mood shifts, suddenly fearful. “I need to call Gamzee, right now.”

  
“Okay. You go do that.” Her bloodpusher croaks weakly in her chest. Who is she kidding? He deserves so much better, but Gamzee will always bog him down. Too sweet, too hopeful, and too romantic for his own good. She swallows, and quietly stops trying to feel so pale for him, because Gamzee will always hold him with a grip around his diamond. All she can do is heal the wounds that he leaves behind on Karkat. All she can do is be is friend, and that’s alright.

-

She and Vriska are right in the middle of bickering over what to do for date night (Vriska wanted to do an escape room, Feferi wanted to go to the carnival and play carnival games) when their phones lit up at the same time.

gallowsCalibrator [GC] RIGHT NOW opened memo.

GC: G4MZ33 JUST K1LL3D K4N4Y4  
GC: G3T TO ST3PFORD 4S SOON 4S YOU C4N

Suddenly, their hatedate didn’t seem so important.

-

“Holy shit,” Vriska said, slowly entering the house, Feferi trailing behind and shutting the door behind them. Most of the rest of the group, excluding Nepeta and Tavros, who lived too far out, were there. In the horrible middle of it all was Kanaya’s body, blood slowly forming a puddle from her head.

“No way.” Feferi crouched down, feeling for her pulse. Completely gone. “What happened?”

  
“Me, her, Gamzee, and Karkat were having a double date earlier, and for some reason, as we were coming back to my place, Gamzee just.. just pulled out his club and hit her on the back of her head,” Terezi tells them, her voice steady but her lip wobbling. Vriska shifts into moirail mode, standing up and holding Terezi close, slowly petting her hair.

Speaking of Gamzee and Karkat. Feferi turns to the corner of the room. There sits Gamzee, an uncaring, lazy look plastered on his face. Karkat sits in front of him while hissing, protecting him almost, all the while staring at Kanaya’s corpse.

“We can’t even get close to him because KK is protecting him,” Sollux points out. At the sound of his nickname, Karkat’s head snaps up and begins hissing harder.

  
“I get he’s his moirail and all, but Gamzee’s a goddamn MATESPRIT MURDERING ASSHOLE!” Terezi snarls in their direction, and Karkat shrinks up. “She’s his best friend, but he still insists on protecting him! Unless Karkat stays with him for the rest of that miserable clown bastard’s life, I swear to Cond I’m gonna kill him!”

“Guys,” Feferi says weakly, holding up her hands. “Fighting right when it’s happened isn’t going to do anything. We’ll need to tell her lusus. We can… we can deal with Gamzee later.” Karkat makes a betrayed noise, but she ignores it in favor of kneeling down next to Kanaya. “I’m so sorry,” she whispers, before pressing a gentle goodbye kiss to her lips.

When she pulls away, everyone is silent. Even Karkat has stopped his growling. Suddenly, Kanaya’s eyes shoot open, and she sits up, Feferi scrambling away in shock.

“Kanaya!” Terezi exclaims, but she turns to Karkat and Gamzee, eyes blown wide, and stands up quickly before striding over to them.

  
“Kanaya-” Karkat starts, jumping to his feet, but she drags him out of the way and hisses at him. He stumbles back in surprise, and gapes at her. “Kanaya. You’re glowing.”

She hisses at him again before focusing on Gamzee, who watches her placidly. She pulls him to his feet, growls at him, and kicks him square in the nuts. He falls back down with a honk, and she turns around before whimpering at Terezi and collapsing again. This time, at the very least, breathing.

-

Gamzee barely escapes with his life due to Karkat smuggling him out while everyone is distracted with Kanaya. Feferi hits him up a few days later.

"Are you alright? Where are you?” She asks quickly.

  
“I’m at Gamzee’s hive,” he whispers back. “I’m fine, how are you?”

  
“I’m okay. Oh Cond, I’m coming over.”

  
“No!” He exclaims, before immediately going back to a whisper. “I mean- no. It’s, uh, raunchy over here. Diamonds and papping and piles galore and shit.”

  
“Okay, okay, I get it.” He’s acting suspicious.

“Kanaya’s feeling better. Rainbowdrinker, she turned out to be. Crazy, right?”

  
“So crazy. Hey, I have to go.”

“Talk later?” Feferi asks, but he hangs up on her in the middle of saying so. She frowns at her phone and then tries her best to relax. Her cuttlefish stares at her with blank eyes and drifts by her fin. They get it.

-

When she calls again, Karkat doesn’t answer. She tries two more times before texting him, but gets no response to any of that. She visits his house once, but he’s not there.

A week later, he finally responds, and they talk for ten minutes before she doesn’t hear from him for another week and a half. She’s getting pretty scared about him, and she has questions like “Why did Gamzee try to kill Kanaya?” and “Will it happen again with only Karkat around?” She has to admit she’s terrified. So, in decision she hopes she won’t regret, she goes to Gamzee’s hive.

Gamzee offers her a sly grin and greeting when she meets him at the door, and she can see Karkat watching nervously from down the hall. Feferi and Gamzee are both chilly, something the two hadn’t been before. He watches her with more focus than she ever expected from him.

“Feferi,” Karkat hisses at her when she comes in and Gamzee slips away to get a drink for her. “What are you doing here?”

  
“You didn’t respond. I’ve been worried.” His features soften at her ernesty, but quickly return back into a frown.

  
“About me? Why?”

  
“Oh, Karkat…”

It’s at this moment Gamzee comes back, baring Faygo. Karkat shrinks back at the sight of him, but Gamzee doesn’t seem to notice outside of his smirk crawling a bit higher. The tenseness between Feferi’s eyebrows grows.

“Man, sis, I never expected you to come my way,” Gamzee says as they settle in chairs. Feferi on one side, Gamzee and Karkat on the other, like lines in a war have been drawn. Karkat’s eyes dart between her and Gamzee, as if he isn’t sure where he should go.

  
“Well, I haven’t seen or heard from either of you since Kanaya.” She opens her drink with a hiss, and takes a testing sip. She almost spits it up, but it’s honestly not that horrible. Just shitty. Why do we have to make a big deal out of things.

“Aw, shit. Well, Kan got her motherfucking justice or some shit, and me and Karbro over here been working together.” He grins, and Feferi wants to drown him until his clown paint and smug smile melt away.

  
“Working on what?” She asks, watching him closely.

  
“None of y'all ever wanted to die for a pie. Karkat all up in that pale diamond shit, ain’t he? Addiction is apparently a powerful fucking consequence,” he replies, and she gets it. He’s been going off sopor.

-

"Are you happy here?" Feferi asks him when Gamzee goes to the trap.

  
"Of course. He's my moirail." Karkat is incredibly unconvincing.

  
"Please, Karkat. I just want you safe and happy. He's dangerous in a really bad way. He KILLED Kanaya. Why?"

  
Karkat is silent for a few moments. "I made him get rid of his sopor supply, and he gets more violent without it. We've been... working on it." He carefully rubs his arm, covered up by a sweater sleeve, and her eyes widen.

Quickly, she drags the sleeve up to a large red-purple bruise on his forearm. He squawks in protest, but Feferi can't stop staring at it, her bloodpusher frozen in her chest.

"You're not staying here any longer," she tells him, and Karkat looks up at her, nausea welling up in his eyes. The loadgaper flushes and she exclaims "Go!" before forcing him out the front door.

Feferi turns around right when Gamzee comes back in. "Where's Karbro, o diamond cutter?" He asks, looking around, and she swallows.

  
"I'm sending him back home." His lips twitch in a smile.

  
"Well, alright. But where is he? Can't a motherfucker get a goodbye moirail kiss? Kar, come out," he calls. Please don't Karkat, she thinks to herself.

The front door opens with a click, a fearful Karkat peeking in, having been listening the entire time. Gamzee walks over, and before anyone can say anything, plants a sloppy kiss on Karkat, who recoils away slightly, but Gamzee wrenches his arm around and holds him in the kiss for several long seconds. Feferi forces herself to look away, flexing her hands as she resists the urge to rip his throat out.

Finally, Karkat is released, and Gamzee saunters back over to her. "Have a good night, sis." He places a hand on her shoulder and she pushes it off with a growl.

  
"Right. See you, Gamzee. Karkat, let's go."

She feels his gaze watching them as they walk away, until the door is finally shut behind them. Feferi grips Karkat's hand as hard as she can, and he doesn't complain.

-

"I'm not letting you go back there," she tells him, pacing around his hive as he rubs his bruised arm with a wince.

  
"He's my moirail," is all he says, empty of emotion, and she turns on him quickly.

  
"He's hurting you! Physically, emotionally!"

  
"You can't stop me. We're not dating. Don't you even.. don't you even touch him."

Feferi swallows. Karkat stares her straight in the eyes. He's angry, but he's devoid of any passion. She looks away. "He's killing you, and there's nothing I can do to stop it. I don't think he even cares about you."

  
"Maybe so. But he needs me if he wants to live."

  
"He'd be better off dead!"

  
"Maybe so."

Feferi sits down next to Karkat, and cups his cheek with her palm. He leans into the touch, and she falls gently forwards until she tucks her head under Karkat's chin.

"I pity you," she whispers, like it's some kind of secret.

  
"I know." He claws the tangles out of her hair, and she just breathes with him, their chests moving up and down together.

-

A few days later, she pulls herself up onto the beach. Her mom warned her someone was there, prowling. A quiet honk pulls at her senses, and she stands up. A honk again.

She texts Karkat to come as soon as possible. For better or for worse, she can feel in the air that something is going to happening. Another honk.

Gamzee steps forwards, swinging his clubs. Feferi pulls out her trident, and he watches her closely. "Why are you here?" She finally asks, and he smiles.

"Been hearing through the grapevine that, o mirthful don't be true, that you been hankering to up and steal my Karbro's diamond. Say it ain't so."

  
She turns her trident and jumps into fighting stance, pointing it at Gamzee. "And what if it is? You don't want him, you don't care for him." He sighs.

  
"Well that's just not right. Suppose I got to straighten this shit out, aye sis?" He changes his grip on his clubs, and pins her with a look, his eyes beginning to fill with highblood rage red. "You down with the clown?"

Feferi growls at him. Her eyes bled with highblood rage a long time ago, they're just now filling out. "You want to dance, Gamzee? Alright, let's dance."

-

It's a few minutes later when Karkat crosses across the beach. Feferi stands, leaning against the trident she stuck in the sand, as she's watching the dead body to make sure it's truly dead.

"Feferi?" He calls, having not noticed Gamzee yet. "Feferi, is that you?"

  
"Yeah, come on over," she tells him, and he walks over slowly. As he gets closer, he gasps and realizes who's at her feet. That's when he begins to run to her.

Feferi grins at him, rows of small, sharp teeth teetering gently in her mouth. When he's close enough, he brings a hand out and gently wipes away a spec of blood settled on her cheek. He’s out of it.

“Oh my Cond, Feferi,” he whispers.

  
“Do you like it?” She asks, still grinning.

  
“Oh my Cond.”

Gamzee's corpse on the floor doesn’t say a thing. It just lies there, the blood slowly leaking out to stain the sand. They’re on the edge of the sea, and she’s still dripping wet, the purple blood from the corpse slowly coming off of her with the water.

“Feferi. What the hell did you call me for?” He asks distantly, staring up at her, and she grabs his hand.  
“Wanna run away with me?” Feferi says slyly, and he looks at Gamzee for a long time. He's free.

“Hell yes.”

He brings her in for a deep kiss, pale and sweet as sugar, and Feferi gasps when their lips make contact, before melting into it. When they pull away, he's crying. She wipes a red tear away. "Holy fuck," he starts, "I pity you so fucking much."

  
"I pity you too!" She replies with a half-sob, half-laugh. "I pity you so much, Karkat! It's ridiculous!"

  
"Hey, shoosh," he says with a delighted little laugh, and paps her once. She sighs, and wraps her arms around him.

There were still things to be done. Feferi's mom still had to be killed, the Empress still had to be defeated, the hemospectrum still had to be destroyed. But that was for another night. That night, they held each other.

Together, on that beach, they swayed under the soft pale light of the moons.

**Author's Note:**

> tumblr is don-lockwood


End file.
